Bilingual Coptic-Arabic Psalter.

Single volume, decorated manuscript on paper, in both Coptic and Arabic throughout, 264 leaves (plus one paper endleaf at front, and 2 at back), apparently complete, single column of 19 lines in a late medieval Coptic bookhand with Arabic in Naskh script (the Arabic sometimes in column-wide blocks, but most often in thin columns parallel to the Coptic text), red rubrics, capitals in red or red edged with black pen, a few large initials in iridescent yellow, major texts opening with headbands of geometric penwork touched in dark faded red, numerous stylised yellow birds opening significant text sections, some water damage, spots and stains, with later paper repairs to edge of first leaf; housed in red pasteboards with leather spine and corners, with scuffs and lower board water damaged at edge with lower board a little warped. Dimensions; 211 x 150mm (8¼ x 6 inches). This volume bears witness to a very specific monastery in Egypt known as the Monastery of Saint Anthony, in the eastern desert nestled deep in an oasis in the Red Sea Mountains. The Monastery of Saint Anthony is a Coptic Orthodox monastery that was established by the followers of Anthony the Great, an early Christian monk believed to have been born in circa 251 AD. The Monastery is one of the most prominent in Egypt and has strongly influenced the formation of several Coptic institutions, and it's walls still welcome several hundred pilgrims a day. The Monastery is believed to have been built around 298 and 300 AD (after the death of Saint Anthony), and was an established pilgrimage destination during the later crusades. By the 19th century however, the Monastery was in need of major repairs and apparently the few monks that lived there relied greatly upon the support of the nearby village of Bush. It is therefore even more remarkable to have a manuscript copied from the later part in this Monastery's history, and it is very unlikely that other witnesses exist from this period. For more information on the Monastery of Saint Anthony see: Otto Friedrich Meinardus, Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Deserts, Cairo, Egypt (The American University in Cairo Press, August. 1989). This Psalter, with its distinctively Coptic decoration, has been inscribed in Coptic with a parallel translation into Arabic throughout, There is also a full colophon in Arabic at the end of the volume naming the Monastery of Saint Anthony and noting that the work was finished on the 26th day of Bashans (the ninth month of the Coptic Calendar) in 1546, which would be the equivalent of the 2nd June 1830 in the Gregorian calendar. Manuscripts of this nature in dual coptic and Arabic are rare, only one comparable has been traced institutionally in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Acc. No: 2019.297.3).…